Thursday, December 29, 2005

Weapon of mass destruction

If you needed proof that the Sourav Ganguly issue -- which should have been dead and buried or at the least put into limbo following his naming for the squad to tour Pakistan -- has reached ridiculous proportions, consider this story, and this premise contained therein:

The issue has given former Pakistani cricketers like Moin Khan, Waqar Younis etc., a free invitation to jump into the swirling waters and stoke the raging fires. The latest to hold forth on the issue is former Pakistan captain Mushtaq Mohammed who said in Karachi (as reported in a city eveninger) that “his (Ganguly’s) presence is not going to benefit the Indian team in many ways”.A few others also expressed their views on the subject, including a senior Pakistan Cricket Board official, who felt that this Indian team would not be the same as the one that came last time as “this time they have definite internal issues to sort out”.It will be a moot point if the Ganguly issue becomes a Trojan horse of sorts through which the opposition can sneak into the Indian team’s mind-set and begin working on their destabilising mission from within. It will be naive not to expect the Pakistanis to use every trick in the book to exploit the prickly issue to their advantage.

Hoo boy -- the ludicrous mental vision of Moin Khan, Waqar Younis et cetera jumping into raging waters to stoke fires burning therein made my day. Wonder what else is in store, before the tour actually begins and we can move on from discussing what ifs to what-actually-happeneds.